OUR BLOG

Energy Insights, by Fairbanks Energy, examines a wide variety of topics within the energy sector. We discuss industry trends, compile the latest news, feature recent projects, highlight company updates, and give our own engineers a platform to answer questions within the field of energy conservation.

FES Project Spotlight: Parking Areas

With near 2 billion parking spaces in the U.S., and a third of them being located in parking lots, the parking garage sector accounts for a significant amount of real estate in cities and towns nationwide. Within this market, building owners spend more than $6 billion to light their parking lots and garages. By upgrading traditional parking garage fixtures to LEDs, significant advantages can be obtained in regard to finance and safety.

Fairbanks Energy completed a solar LED lighting project at MIT Cambridge Real Estate LLC’s Cambridge, MA parking lot, managed by JLL. Originally without any form of illumination, the parking lot now provides high-efficiency LED light for patrons of the business after dark. Thanks to the implementation of solar powered solutions, the lighting consumes no electricityfrom the utility, which accounts for$48,000in life span energy savings.

As part of a large-scale energy efficiency project at Edward Elmhurst Health, Fairbanks Energy upgraded the hospitals parking garage lighting. A total of 748 fixtures were upgraded from 100W induction garage fixtures to LEDs integrated with control sensors. As a result, the parking garage lighting upgrade saves the hospital $60,000 and 634,000 kWh annually.

When is the last time you have had your parking lot lighting looked at?